Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro (13 August 1926-) was the President of Cuba from 2 January 1959 to 24 February 2008, succeeding Fulgencio Batista and preceding Raul Castro. Castro led the Cuban Revolution in 1953-1959 and overthrew the Batista dictatorship, and he established a communist state to replace the pro-United States government, nationalizing the US cigar and fruit industries and creating an isolated leftist island republic. He resigned from office in 2008 after almost 50 years in power, and his younger brother Raul Castro assumed power.

Biography
Fidel Castro was born on 13 August 1926 in Biran, Cuba, the son of a wealthy farmer. He was the brother of Raul Castro. While studying law at the University of Havana, he became a communist, and in 1947 he took part in a planned coup against Rafael Trujillo and traveled to Colombia in the late 1940s to assist in another communist coup. Castro was inspired by revolutions against dictatorships, and in 1953 he decided to lead an attack on the Moncada Barracks against Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. The attack failed, and he was imprisoned by Batista's dictatorship for his failed coup. Batista later had him released in an amnesty, and Castro famously stated, "History will absolve me." Castro lived abroad in Mexico for five years, where he met several other communists. Founding the 26th of July Movement - named for the date of the Moncada Barracks attack - Castro began another uprising against the Cuban Army in 1958 alongside Argentine guerrilla Che Guevara and other communist fighters, and he began the Cuban Revolution against Batista. After the Battle of Santa Clara in 1959, Castro was able to overwhelm Batista's forces, and on 1 January 1959